An diofar eadar na mùthaidhean a rinneadh air "Jesus is life?"
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| Loidhne 7: | Loidhne 7: | ||
* <span style="color: #6600CC;">rotbia in failti sunda againni</span> "to you will be welcome here at us" | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">rotbia in failti sunda againni</span> "to you will be welcome here at us" | ||
it is much more plausible that the origin of this phrase was <span style="color: #6600CC;">rotbia de bethu</span> "to you will be life". <span style="color: #6600CC;">ro-t·bia</span> being, by the way: | it is much more plausible that the origin of this phrase was <span style="color: #6600CC;">rotbia de bethu</span> "to you will be life". <span style="color: #6600CC;">ro-t·bia</span> being, by the way: | ||
| − | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">ro</span> (which | + | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">ro</span>, in Old Irish this is a preverb (a particle which may go before a verb), a form of <span style="color: #6600CC;">do</span> meaning "to(wards" |
| − | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">-bia</span> which is the 3rd person singular future of the | + | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">-t-</span> (a marker for the second person "you"), so it's a little bit like having the modern <span style="color: #008000;">dhut</span> "to(wards) you" sitting before the verb. But it's not, before you go down that route, <span style="color: #008000;">dhut</span> per se, because that was <span style="color: #6600CC;">duit/dait</span> in Old Irish |
| + | * <span style="color: #6600CC;">-bia</span> which is the 3rd person singular future of the verb "be" (think of modern <span style="color: #008000;">bi(dh)</span>. | ||
| − | + | Over time, this would change quite regularly: | |
| + | # <span style="color: #6600CC;">rotbia de bethu</span> drops the preverb <span style="color: #6600CC;">ro</span> leaving us with | ||
| + | # <span style="color: #6600CC;">tbia de bethu</span> which immediately simplifies <span style="color: #6600CC;">tb-</span> to just <span style="color: #6600CC;">t-</span> and weakens and slenderises it, giving us | ||
| + | #<span style="color: #6600CC;">dia de bethu</span>, which now falls prey to that ancient confusion between <span style="color: #008000;">de & do</span>, giving us | ||
| + | # <span style="color: #6600CC;">día do bheatha</span> which is the re-analysed to | ||
| + | # <span style="color: #6600CC;">dé do bheatha</span>, further reduced to | ||
| + | # <span style="color: #6600CC;">sé do bheatha</span> and the re-analysed again as | ||
| + | # <span style="color: #008000;">'s e do bheatha</span>. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This also explains neatly, by the way, why this seemingly is ungrammatical i.e. in reference to <span style="color: #008000;">beatha</span>, you would expect <span style="color: #6600CC;">Is í do bheatha</span> rather than <span style="color: #6600CC;">Is é</span>. | ||
Mùthadh on 11:14, 9 dhen Lùnastal 2015
Even Gaelic has its urban myths. One of them is that 'S e do bheatha supposedly is Is E do bheatha, as in He (Jesus or God) is your life. Nice try but no.
It's true that if you dig a bit further back into history, you come across dia do bheatha in Old Irish (yes, fortunately they wrote things down, so we have an instance of CuChulainn greeting Fergus with Fuit! Día do bethu, a phopa Fergus. So while this looks bit like it might be invoking anthropomorphised omnipotent beings, there's an immediate problem. Yes, it's unlikely to be the Christian pantheon because the Fianna didn't do Christianity.
Bearing in mind very similar Old Irish formulae, such as
- rotbia-su fáilte "to you will be welcome"
- rotbia in failti sunda againni "to you will be welcome here at us"
it is much more plausible that the origin of this phrase was rotbia de bethu "to you will be life". ro-t·bia being, by the way:
- ro, in Old Irish this is a preverb (a particle which may go before a verb), a form of do meaning "to(wards"
- -t- (a marker for the second person "you"), so it's a little bit like having the modern dhut "to(wards) you" sitting before the verb. But it's not, before you go down that route, dhut per se, because that was duit/dait in Old Irish
- -bia which is the 3rd person singular future of the verb "be" (think of modern bi(dh).
Over time, this would change quite regularly:
- rotbia de bethu drops the preverb ro leaving us with
- tbia de bethu which immediately simplifies tb- to just t- and weakens and slenderises it, giving us
- dia de bethu, which now falls prey to that ancient confusion between de & do, giving us
- día do bheatha which is the re-analysed to
- dé do bheatha, further reduced to
- sé do bheatha and the re-analysed again as
- 's e do bheatha.
This also explains neatly, by the way, why this seemingly is ungrammatical i.e. in reference to beatha, you would expect Is í do bheatha rather than Is é.
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